


Marry Me

by IWantColouredRain



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Childhood Friends, Alternate universe-no island, F/M, Friends to Lovers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-11
Updated: 2020-04-11
Packaged: 2021-03-01 18:41:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,367
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23591752
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IWantColouredRain/pseuds/IWantColouredRain
Summary: A one-shot based on the music video of Thomas Rhett's 'Marry Me' (great song, I recommend it). Olicity AU-no island. Childhood friends where Oliver falls in love with Raisa's niece Felicity. Who is engaged to someone else.
Relationships: Cooper Seldon/Felicity Smoak (background), Oliver Queen & Felicity Smoak, Oliver Queen & Thea Queen, Oliver Queen/Felicity Smoak, Tommy Merlyn & Oliver Queen
Comments: 21
Kudos: 176





	Marry Me

**Disclaimer: I don't own either Arrow, or Marry Me by Thomas Rhett. Just a little story I wrote as I suffer through this bloody lockdown, attempting to not lose my sanity despite being stuck in the house with only my mother and sister for company. Based on the music video.**

**Read, enjoy, and review!**

* * *

_She wants to get married, she wants it perfect_

She had filled up the small room with her teddy bears and dolls, all set up in line after line and facing the front like an audience. Her brunette hair was pulled into a braid with a daisy chain on top of her head and some fake jewellery. She was wearing a white sundress and yellow flowers on it with a bouquet of flowers made from pipe cleaners in her small hands and her Aunt Raisa's high heels on her tiny feet.

"Whatcha doin'?" Oliver demanded, bouncing into the room and looking around.

Felicity beamed widely at him, showing off her missing tooth. "'m getting' married!" she exclaimed.

"Huh?" Oliver wrinkled his brow. "To who?"

"Teddy," Felicity replied cheerily, pointing at the over-sized teddy bear the Queens (Oliver having picked it out from the toy store) had given her for her last birthday.

"Why're you getting' married?"

"Cause on TV, married people are always happy, all the time," Felicity replied with the logic of a four-year-old. "An' I don' like bein' sad, so I'm gonna get married when I'm older, an' then I'll be happy forever."

Oliver considered this for several moments before nodding in acceptance. "Okay, butcha can't stop bein' my friend, 'kay?" the eight-year-old insisted.

"Never!" Felicity exclaimed, tossing her fake bouquet to the side and rushing over to hug him tightly. "We're gonna be best friends forever! Pinky promise!"

The two children linked pinkies, vowing to always be friends, before grinning widely and running off to play in the large yard that spanned the Queen family estate.

* * *

_I remember the night when I almost kissed her_   
_Yeah, I kinda freaked out, we'd been friends for forever_

Oliver panted as he took a seat on the bench as the time-out was signalled, catching his breath. His lungs burned and he was drenched in sweat. They were behind by three points, and the game was half over now. It was the championships, and if they won he would leave behind Starling Prep as the captain that led the football team to state victory for the first time in fifteen years.

"OLIVER!" a familiar voice yelled his name, gaining his attention despite the roaring crowds. Automatically he turned, a grin forming on his lips as he caught sight of his dearest friend. Even Tommy didn't get him as easily as Felicity did.

She was hopping up and down, at the wire fence, waving frantically for his attention. With her newly-honey-gold hair and tie-dyed t-shirt over a short blue jean skirt, she stood out like a rainbow against a storm-cloud covered sky. Once she saw him looking at her, she turned around and pointed at her back, where she had painted his name and team number on her back. She spun back around again, beaming broadly at him in proud delight. He grinned back, waving at her. He felt the nerves and stress disappear, knowing that, unlike everyone else, Felicity would never be disappointed in him. She believed in him.

As the time out ended, Oliver threw himself back onto the field, filled with a renewed sense of determination. He would win this for Felicity. Because she believed in him.

Later, Oliver gave his younger best friend a piggy-back ride to the nearby diner 'Verdant'. It was a popular hang-out for them, and their school was having a celebratory party there.

The pair of them were sitting in 'their' booth, sharing a portion of fries and sipping at their milkshakes. Oliver's hand was on the bench, keeping him aloft as he leaned close to Felicity's side while chatting with his other friend, Tommy.

As Tommy left, his eye caught by a girl in the year below with red hair and brown eyes, Felicity placed her own hand just beside his own, brushing against his. Glancing at her, it was as if he had fallen under a spell. He began to lean in, Felicity copying him.

Their lips were about to press against each other when Carter Bowen, one of Oliver's teammates, banged on the window and mimed kissing, making them leap apart. Felicity jumped to her feet and dashed outside to whack Carter on the arm, before turning back to look at Oliver through the window and giving him a helpless, embarrassed shrug afterwards.

Oliver grinned back at her weakly, waving her off. Internally, he was scolding himself fiercely. What had he been thinking? It was _Felicity_ , his four-years-younger, sweeter-than-sugar, super-genius best friend. She'd always been around. His earliest memory was of Felicity as a chubby baby, just after she'd come to live with them (or rather, with Raisa who lived in a guest house on their property) after her mother's death and her father walking out right after the funeral when she was barely a year old.

She was wonderful, kind, clever. Beautiful even at her young age. The best part of his life, with only Thea bringing him as much happiness.

He felt his jaw drop to the floor, his eyes going wide as dinner plates as realization struck him.

Sweet Jesus. Oliver Queen was in love with Felicity Smoak.

* * *

_I always wondered if she felt the same way_   
_When I got the invite, I knew it was too late_

Ten years later, he's twenty-eight-years-old, VP of Queen Consolidated and still hopelessly in love with Felicity Smoak.

He's also attending her engagement party. He clutched a glass of champagne in one hand, wearing a fake smile. All of their mutual friends seem to realize that he's miserable, but Felicity, who could usually read him better than anybody else, was too wrapped up in Cooper fucking Sheldon to notice. But then, she had always been oblivious to his feelings for her.

He leaned back in the corner, staring at the way Cooper dipped her playfully, making her laugh in bright-eyed glee. Her cheeks were flushed, and a smile covered her face, going from eye to eye. She radiated happiness.

It equal parts delighted and shattered him. On one hand, her happiness mattered to him more than everything. He may not have realized what he felt until he was eighteen, and had decided not to say anything because she was only fourteen then, but he had loved her since as long as he could remember. Cooper was an asshole in Oliver's opinion, but he was self-aware enough to understand that was probably more due to him taking Felicity's attention and love away from Oliver than any real personality flaws. After all, Felicity would never be with a bad guy. She was too good for that.

But on the other hand, Oliver _wanted_ Felicity. He hated the thought of Cooper touching her, loving her. She'd wanted to be a wife and a mother for as long as they'd known each other. Oliver had spent countless hours indulging her in make-believe weddings and so on. She already had the perfect wedding planned out.

He wanted to be the one to marry her.

Spying her shooting him a concerned look, maybe recognizing the strain he felt if not the reason for it, Oliver forced a smile and raised the glass to her. She smiled back, making as if to come over only to be intercepted by Caitlin and Iris, her college roommates from MIT.

MIT, the place where she had met Cooper and Oliver had lost her. The reminder hurt like a knife to the chest.

As soon as she looked away, Oliver swallowed the entire glass in a single gulp. He wished it was something far, far stronger. Something strong enough to let him forget that he was losing the woman he loved more than life itself. Once she was married, he would start spending less and less time with her, as her life was consumed by her work at STAR Labs and by Cooper and any children that they had together.

The thought of Felicity having children with anyone else made him green with a mixture of jealousy and nausea.

"You okay man?" Tommy asked softly, sympathy shining from his blue eyes. For all his jokes and playboy ways, Tommy Merlyn was a loyal and loving friend. He'd watched Oliver moon over Felicity all their lives, and knew this had to be breaking his heart.

"I think I'm gonna get going," Oliver replied, putting the glass aside. "Big meeting tomorrow, you know? Give my best to Felicity, please."

"Alright," Tommy agreed softly, watching Oliver walk away with slumped shoulders.

They didn't see Felicity duck into her bedroom, and nobody saw her smile slip away as she stared at the ring on her finger, biting her lip and darting a glance at the photo of herself and Oliver just after he won the state championships when they were teens. Felicity exhaled and squared her shoulders, returning to the party and pasting her bright smile back on.

But when Tommy informed her that Oliver had left without a goodbye, for just a second, her mask slipped and her expression fell. She forced herself to smile and spout a cheery line about catching up with him at lunch later that week, and threw herself into the celebration, trying to force her doubts to disappear.

* * *

_But she got on her dress now, welcoming the guests now_   
_I could try to find her, get it off of my chest now_   
_But I ain't gonna mess it up, so I wish her the best now_

Oliver held the gift (wrapped in tie-dyed wrapping paper) loosely as he wandered over to the table and placed the box on top. He should have gotten something more meaningful, but he'd felt sick even as he thought of purchasing a gift for her wedding to another man, and ended up just getting some computer thing she'd been talking about for months now.

He was dressed in a black suit with a black tie, and felt more like he was attending a funeral than his best friend's wedding. The thought of going to her, telling her the truth, had been nagging at him. Thea and Tommy and Dig all advocated for it. Urged him to tell her the truth before it was too late, claimed that she loved him too.

But whenever he imagined it, he pictured the happiness she'd so clearly felt when announcing her engagement, imagined the stricken look she would gain as he confessed his love right before her marriage. No, it wouldn't be fair to put her in that situation, and would likely ruin their friendship. Better to have her as a friend than not have her at all.

So he couldn't tell her. But, despite his efforts to prepare himself and his promises to himself, he knew that he didn't have the strength to sit and watch as she married another man, either. He'd had several strong shots of whiskey already, but it simply wasn't enough.

"Ollie?" Thea trotted up to him. Her expression was full of worry for him, and she reached for his arm. "Are you alright?"

"I can't do this," he muttered in response. "I have to-I can't do this, Speedy. I have to get out of here."

"Okay," she breathed. "Go."

Oliver nodded, then took off.

* * *

Felicity's stomach was twisting with nerves, but not in a good way, the way it should be for her wedding day. Her ears were ringing, and she felt as if she were on the verge of fainting as she walked slowly down the aisle.

She glanced from side to side, searching for Oliver. But she couldn't see him. She saw Thea, and Tommy, and Raisa was walking her down the aisle. But her best friend wasn't there.

Where was he? This was the most important day of her life. How could he not be there for her?

Her breathing was picking up speed, and snapshots of moments of her and Oliver's friendship were playing out in front of her eyes.

She stopped. Three-quarters of the way down the aisle, she simply stopped, accidentally jerking her aunt's arm. Raisa looked worriedly at her, inquiring in Russian as to what was wrong. Everybody stared at her in confusion as she started shaking her head, tears welling in her eyes. Her bouquet fell from limp fingers as she looked at Cooper.

"I'm sorry," she apologized, voice hoarse. "I can't do this. It's not fair, I-I'm so sorry Cooper. I can't do this. I don't-" She shook her head, turning and rushing off, gripping her skirt and releasing the sobs that had been building themselves in her chest.

* * *

Oliver was lacing another coffee with whiskey from his flask, trying not to think of the fact that Felicity was probably saying her vows right about now, when a splash of white caught his eye. Automatically, he turned towards it. His jaw dropped in shock at the sight of Felicity, all done up for her wedding, standing outside the diner with a helpless look on her face, tears falling freely from her eyes.

On instinct, he rushed out of the diner, gathering her into his chest where she sobbed freely.

"What happened, Felicity?" If Cooper had caused her tears on her wedding day, Oliver _would_ kill him for it.

"I was walking down the aisle," Felicity replied tearfully. "And I was looking for you. And I couldn't see you. And I wasn't thinking of Cooper, or my future with him, or anything I should have been thinking of. All I could think was that _you_ weren't at my wedding. And I realized that I couldn't go through with it."

"What?" he croaked out hoarsely. Was he actually hearing what he thought he was? Did he dare to believe this wasn't a dream?

Felicity pulled back to look him in the eye, bottom lip trembling.

"How could I marry him, when all my life I've wanted to marry you?"


End file.
